Parks pivots on guideline revisions for amenity use

OPA president says appeal process for aggrieved property owners will be considered to comply with new state HOA law

By TOM STAUSS Publisher

Ocean Pines Association President Doug Parks is pivoting away from portions of a Board Resolution M-02 amenity policy revision unveiled by his predecessor, Colette Horn, at the January Board meeting. As an alternative, he is suggesting that at least some of the proposed changes, or variations of them, be included in an amenities rules book maintained by the general manager.

The proposed changes in M-02 didn’t make the agenda of the Feb. 18 Board meeting, but Parks subsequently told the Progress that the pivot away from proposals in the amendment package is under review by a working group of department heads and General Manager John Viola.

“Rather than amend M-02, let’s look at the GM’s rule book and see if that might not be the better place for some of these changes,” he said.

Following the January Board meeting, Parks outlined some issues he had with the proposed changes unveiled by Horn.

One is a new rule that limits group usage of OPA facilities to groups that are comprised of a least 60 per cent Ocean Pines residents. He wondered how the OPA could enforce that rule, because percentages of Ocean Pines membership in

Legal services

From Page 10 he interviews will allow the designated firms an opportunity to answer any questions the Board may have regarding their proposals. say, a card group, might fluctuate from meeting to meeting.

• Cost of services.

The top-ranked firms among the applicants will be requested to attend a meeting with the Board of Directors to be interviewed.

Participation in the interviews will be at no cost to the Association. The Association will take notes of each proposer’s oral representations during the interviews.

These notes may be read back to the proposer for clarification and/or validation, and some material may be incorporated into a legal services agreement.

The Board of Directors will make the final determination of the successful firm.

He also said he has concerns about a new policy procedure proposed by Horn to deal with unruly behavior at amenities in Ocean Pines. It establishes a new procedure in which the Board of Directors would be empowered to suspend members from amenities for poor behavior.

“I’m very sensitive to the Board’s policy role versus taking on an operational role,” Parks said, suggesting that OPA governing documents specify that amenity managers and the OPA general manager have the power to deal with behavior issues at the amenities.

These same governing documents also limit amenity suspensions to non-payment of association assessments and ongoing compliance infractions involving violations of restrictive covenants and guidelines administered by the Architectural Review Committee and the Department of Compliance, Permitting and Inspections.

Poor conduct by a member is not listed as a reason for suspending a member. Current procedures allow management to escort a member who is behaving poorly to be escorted off the premises.In a Feb. 21 telephone interview, Parks said that sensitivity to the Board not taking on a role best left to management is the primary reason he suggested the pivot to the GM rule book.

At the same time, he acknowledged a new state law mandates that homeowner associations in Maryland set up an appeal process for property owners aggrieved by management decisions that could include a GM-imposed amenity suspension.

“The chances of some sort of appeal process are probably pretty good,”

Parks said. If it turns out that the Board of Directors is the body that considers appeals of management decisions, then it becomes a matter of at “what point does it become a Board issue.”

Parks previously had expressed concern “that [by giving the Board a formal role in activity that could lead to a suspending a member] we could be creating an internal conflict [between M-02, the amenity policy, and governing documents]. Maybe the Board shouldn’t be trying to inject itself into a process best left to operations personnel.”

He said in the recent litigation involving former Director Tom Janasek, who had been suspended from access to certain amenities by a Board majority, the judge said “stick to what’s in the by-laws” in its amenity policies.

Parks said that perhaps a “different procedure” could be drafted to deal with situations that led to a short-lived suspension for Janasek before it was lifted by the Court.

“I can’t see supporting it [the proposed Board role] as it is written,” he added. “We have a lot on our plate. We should be avoiding any new procedure that is usurping the role” of management.

A pivot to amending the GM’s amenities rules may be a way to resolve the dilemma, Parks said.